An article by Víctor Carulla, Managing Partner at HEADWAY Executive Search
The Harvard Business Review magazine has recently published the ranking of the world’s top-performing CEOs, where Pablo Isla, of the Spanish fast-retailing giant Inditex, repeats as the number-one-ranked executive. A quarter of the companies ranked belong to the technology sector, and a third of the managers are engineers who have been working at the company for years until they have assumed the management role (their average work experience at the company is 16 years, and the average age at which they took up the manager position is 44).
These managers represent a new generation of leaders that take their organizations to remarkably high-income level and market dominance. But what sets this new wave of modern managers apart?
In the past, the companies were established by traditional management style, based on the authoritarian and hierarchical model. Today, the new management style is much more flexible and collaborative and presents the balance between hard – technical skills – and soft skills – that are acquired through experiences and interpersonal relationships.
In addition, this management style uses collaborative leadership practices. Now, the professionals know how to motivate their team and how to help individuals feel appreciated and supported when the challenge comes along, by encouraging risk-taking and experimentation and learning to accept mistakes, which is necessary and inevitable to succeed.
Rewarding and recognizing teamwork rather than just the leader reduces and dissolves the feeling of frustration that many professionals feel confined in closed pyramid organizational structures and fearing their superiors.
Thus, companies increasingly require this new management style, not only with high technical skills but also with a focus on leadership and collaborative teamwork. This is the only way to keep employees motivated and increase their opportunities to grow.
Continue reading the article published in Spain´s leading economic and business newspaper Expansión ¨Los directivos que vienen¨ (Expansión Catalunya, 01/02/2019)
